In 1731, Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) gathered six keyboard partitas that he had previously composed and published individually, and issued them himself as his Op. 1, the first part of his monumental Clavier Übung (Keyboard Practice) anthology. He dedicated them to “music lovers, for the delight of their spirits,” and although sales of his printed edition proved disappointing, these amazing dance suites circulated widely in manuscript copies.
“This work made in its time a great noise in the musical world,” Johann Nikolaus Forkel wrote in 1802. “Such excellent compositions for the clavier had never been seen and heard before. Anyone who had learnt to perform well some pieces out of them could make his fortune in the world thereby; and even in our times, a young artist might gain acknowledgment by doing so, they are so brilliant, well-sounding, expressive, and always new.”
Listen now to pianist Martha Argerich who performs this music for you:
